All Saints' and St. Nicholas' Churches
Church of England
Poplar, Tower Hamlets, London E14
Church Mouse Blog 11 (Easter to Summer 2010)
This blog records all of the important, memorable or disastrous events which occur at All Saints and in the Parish of Poplar.
It therefore provides a narrative and pictorial record of the people and events in Poplar.
Welcome to these exciting pages of news, gossip and happenings at All Saints and St Nicks -
9th May 2010
Annual Parochial Church Meeting
This is the time of year when we hold the Annual Parochial Church Meeting, and here is the boss presenting his report. He is smiling, so there must be good news somewhere. You can read his full report here.
On Alan's right, looking glum is Fred who now retires as Church Warden after donkey's years. His post is taken up by the young lady on Alan's left - Val Underhill.
Fortunately Jenny, Fred's better half (far right of the photo) continues to keep the boss happy by looking after all the money.
2009 was just another year in our life, but is constantly amazes me that each year in the Christian calendar is full of excitement and promise. We still have many special occassions coming up before we can retire to our caravan for the summer. So - watch this space!
He is all in a flurry conducting the worthies of the London Transport choir. I bet you didn't know there was such a thing. Singing postmen - yes, but warbling tube train drivers??
And what on earth are they doing at St. Nicks' on a Thursday evening?
Well it was Corpus Christi following on from Trinity Sunday a few days ago. So the evening mass was held at St. Nicks'. and somehow Michael Kyte (that's the one waving his arms about) pursuaded this choir to attend the service, and they sang beautifully.
Then for some reason we had three priests all coming together to con-celebrate communion together - which on this day remembers the giving of the sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord at the Eucharist.
Even St Kevin was there. But then I realised that the full house might just have somethiing to do with the little celebration afterwards when Father Tom had some orange juice, but most people had something a little stronger.
It's all fun in Poplar. A good mixture of the Holy sacraments, uplifting music and then the feasting afterwards. What more could a Church mouse ask for?
Today Father Tom Duncan stepped into the pulpit and gave us a typical "Father Tom" sermon. Full of stories and comments on daily life in the East End, but cleverly tied in with the Bible readings for the day to highlight the issues and morals of the stories there.
We often include these sermons in our web site, and you can go to the sermon index to see the list of all published sermons. We are blessed at All Saints' to have such a large mixture of priests and readers with such varied life experience. Sometimes I wonder just how they all came together in one place - but it is not up to us mouses to question our elders and betters.
Incidentally I have just been watching "Lark Rise to Candleford" from the telly and am amazed at how much society has changed in the last 100 years. We always need to re-evaluate our Christian understanding and message to make it relevant to today so that we are able to speak into the daily situation of the people we live with.
And Tom is excellent at doing just that!
Click to read his sermon. (Your mouse alologises, but Tom has lost his sermon notes, so if you want to hear one of his sermons you will have to pop in on Sunday mornings to hear him live).
10th June 2010
These Sheldons get everywhere
Your Church Mouse was snoozing away in the Deanery Synod meeting - which can be very boring at times, when suddenly he realised that the handsome young speaker was a Sheldon, and the son of our very own Reverend Jenny.
He was going on about asbestos examinations and other exciting things like that as St Paul's Bow Common Lane is working in conjunction with Poplar Harca to bring new development into their local community.
It all sounded interesting stuff, and then they went on to finances, so I was able to go back to sleep again!
13th June 2010
Confirmation 2010
So another confirmation service is upon us, and 2010 promised to be a very good year, and our expectations were more than realised.
One noticable difference from our normal services is that instead of just Eddie having a puff at the front door before making his way into the service, there were dozens of fags burning away all over the steps and under the porch.
I suppose heaven will be a bit like this - hundreds of east-enders hanging around the pearly gates, having one last fag before they are allowed in. Or as I heard one say - "there'll be plenty of smoke where I'm going" So we all have choices to make!
The service was presided over by Bishop Edward Holland as Bishop Stephen has just retired. Here he is preaching - and you may wonder what the boss is doing lurking behind the scenes.
Well, it was nothing sinister, just that there were so many people crammed in that we ran out of seats, so the boss brought them out of the sanctuary for the late-comers.
As the picture below show we were packed out, and then we all went outside as usual for the scrumptious refreshments. You can see why this Church has mouses.
Many of the people were there to support the confirmation candidates - and it was encouraging to see so much of our community represented in the Church.
For the big picture of the candidates on the steps after the service - go to the Confirmation 2010 page.
Fortunately the sun stayed out so we all congregated outside for drinks and nibbles. As you can see our Bob gets everywhere. One week kissing people as they arrive, and the next handing out the wine. Is there no end to the man's talents?
4th July 2010
1823 and all that
We do get some strange people turning up at All Saints!
The man with the silly grin on the left met me at the door and said he had come to preach!
Now I dimly remembered his face and in the back of my mind I realised that he was a young curate here sometime in the distant past.
Fortunately for him, he had a beautiful young lady on his arm who said she was Mrs Isobel Lawson, so suddenly it all clicked.
Today is our 187th birthday and the guest preacher was James Lawson who was a curate here a few years ago. He obviously has very good taste, and so I let him in.
It's nice to have the boss back from his holiday in Thailand. This time he managed to keep out of trouble and didn't stir up a revolution to prevent him from coming back to work.
Today James was our preacher, and he told some interesting stories about the past history of the Church. You know how easy it is for me to fall asleep during sermons, so all I heard was something about bombs falling and prostitutes. I must get him to tell me the connection sometime.
We should have sung the special hymn written for All Saints by Patrick Appleford, who was at All Saints from 1952 to 1958. However the choir were so busy singing that we didn't have time to get round to it. That was a pity as it mentions me some three lines up from the bottom of the last verse ....
Prophets preaching social justice,
Quiet souls alive with prayer,
scholars seeking truth and wisdom,
women, men who love and care;
young disciples, lively, learning, old disciples full of fun,
saints from every race and nation
with their God for ever one.
Yep. That's All Saints for you.
The summer holidays are now upon us, so I will retreat for a little snooze before the excitement in the Autumn. Keep safe!
